Copyright

Creative Commons licenses are a form of copyright permission that embody the best of the internet: they facilitate, rather than restrict, the dissemination of ideas.

The Creative Commons logo will appear on all individual Briefing Papers to which it applies:

A creative commons license gives readers blanket permission to reproduce content, so long as full attribution of the site and the author are given. Users do not need to seek permission each time they wish to reproduce or share a Paper. (In some sense we are legitimising a practise that is already happening.) While copyright restricts or slows down access to information, a creative commons license is designed to facilitate it. The rationale behind this is the same as the rationale behind the Briefing Papers: to communicate ideas with the public, and as widely as possible.

A creative commons license allows a user to not just link to a Briefing Paper on their own blog, but to reproduce it in part or in full (with full attribution); it would allow teachers wanting a reading for class discussion to print off copies of a Briefing Paper for their students (with full attribution), or to provide a link to a Briefing Paper on their class intranet – without first seeking permission or settling a copyright license.

What does this mean for you as an author? We are asking each author to tell us if they want their Paper to be excluded from this license. A reason for this might include the work (in full or in part) being published elsewhere, so you as author do not hold copyright over your own work.

Please note that the Creative Commons license applies to the text of the paper, and not necessarily to the feature image.